Darius retrospective [Eurogamer.net]
Darius is a series defined by grand scale - from the magnitude of its iconic bosses and the cabinets they built to contain them, to the scope of its universe and the ambition of its creative designers.
When the first game appeared in Japanese game centres at the end of 1986 it made an audacious bid for the hearts and coins of players. The cabinet demanded attention, housing a colossal three screen set-up and booming body-sonic seats that rattled the spine. Though it wasn't the first tri-screen arcade game as it's often credited, it was the first to marry such high-impact engineering with the creative presentation to back it up.
Darius was the gaming equivalent of the Ultra Panavision technology that powered films like Ben-Hur in the 1950s and Taito's visionaries saw the power of filling players' entire periphery with endless panoramas of colour and detail. The innovative branching stage format that sees you cutting your own path through its tangled alphabet map further sells the interstellar scale of the Darius world, as it can never be seen entirely in a single sitting.
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